Category Archives: Teaching Notes
Protected: Notes for Bethany and Dunovan’s wedding talk
Lessons from the Battlefield
The Israelites were not happy campers. In spite of a miraculous early morning escape from Egypt, and a dramatic miracle at the Red Sea when God delivered them from the power of the Egyptian army, their focus was still on survival, not victory. They had rejoiced when God led them out of Egypt with displays of great power, but many of them still thought and acted like the downtrodden slaves that they had been all their lives. They had some serious doubts about this trip across the desert to a Promised Land that they had never seen, but only heard about from God’s servant Moses – a land that God had reportedly long ago given to their ancestor Abraham and his descendants, but that no Israelite had seen for over 400 years.
Suddenly, with no warning or provocation, they were attacked by the Amalekites — a hostile tribe bent on their destruction (read the full account here). Not only that, Moses – who had been Israel’s leader in all their dealings with the Egyptians, confronting Pharaoh on their behalf over and over again, and holding back the waters of the Red Sea with his staff so that the Israelites could cross in safety – was not going to lead the troops into this battle. Instead, he had chosen a young, untested leader by the name of Joshua for this task.
If I were Joshua, I might have had mixed feelings about this assignment. True, it was an honour to be chosen by the great man Moses as his personal assistant – but to be Israel’s military commander was another story. The troops were untrained, inclined to grumble, and had never fought a battle. Only a few weeks previously, they had all been slaves. For generations they had been beaten down by the Egyptians, and this had shaped their perspective on life. From the later account of the spies who were sent into the Promised Land (Numbers 13-14), we know most of that generation were timid, fearful, and doubleminded.
Joshua, however, was a fighter, a man of courage. This is the first time he shows up in the narrative, but as we follow him through the pages of Scripture we discover that he was not one to shrink from a challenge. He took up the mantle of leadership and won the battle, and because of his heroic exploits the Israelites were delivered.
It wasn’t just Joshua’s military prowess that made him a hero. No doubt he was a courageous man and a good fighter – but more than this, he was a man of God who had counted the cost and placed his trust firmly in the God of Israel. In the obedience of faith he chose to step onto the battlefield, lead Israel’s untested troops, and face the enemy. In the obedience of faith he chose to pick up his sword, raise his voice, and lead the charge. The reason he is a hero is not just because he did these things, but because he did them in faith, not looking only to himself and his own ability, but looking to the One who is invisible. That’s why we remember Joshua – because he was victorious not only on the military battlefield with the Amalekites, but on the spiritual battlefield of faith. His confidence was not in himself but in his God and his people’s God.
A factor that we sometimes overlook is that Joshua not only had God on his side, he also had the backing of a trusted spiritual father. When Moses recruited Joshua to fight this battle, he didn’t just turn the battle over to his young assistant, he backed him up by praying for him – not from a distance but in full sight of Joshua and the army. For the duration of the battle he stood on a hillside in full view and lifted his hands in prayer to God, and this prayer support was crucial to the victory. Scripture records that as long as Moses had his hands raised in prayer, Israel prevailed in the battle, but when he grew tired and lowered his hands, they began to falter and it looked as though they would be defeated. So we see that it wasn’t just Joshua, the young leader, who needed human support as well as support from God. Even the great man Moses needed others to assist him, to strengthen him, to hold up his arms in prayer so that he in turn could hold Joshua up before the Lord, and the battle would be won, and no Israelite would ever think that they had won this battle by themselves.
God’s people are in a war with Satan’s kingdom, and this battle will continue until Jesus returns in power and glory. While the ultimate victory is assured, our actions make a big difference in the sphere that God has assigned to us. This little gem of a story reminds us of several key insights that can help us in the daily battles of faith – little and big.
- When the odds seem impossible, we need to put our trust in God, offering Him our resources but placing our trust in what only He can supply.
- Our faith needs to be active, not passive. Faith without active obedience is not faith at all. (See Spiritually Aggressive Christians in my other blog)
- Joshua was a man with a vision, and his allegiance was undivided. He was committed to seeing the Israelites cross the desert and enter the Promised Land as God had promised them. He was committed to fighting the Lord’s battles. He knew his allegiance before the battle began. Godly vision and an undivided heart keep us motivated.
- Spiritual fathers and mothers need to uphold, encourage, pray for and believe in young leaders.
- Young leaders need to rely on the protection, encouragement, counsel and prayer support that spiritual fathers and mothers can provide for them.
- Even leaders of leaders (like Moses in this story) need support. No-one in the Body of Christ is meant to be independent. We all need others to cover our weaknesses; every member needs to be linked to others in relationships of support and accountability.
- When a leader (or anyone, for that matter) has an area of weakness, the rest of us are called not to undermine, but to step in and support and help the leader succeed. The person with the weakness needs to be gracious and humble enough to accept this and know that it is for the ultimate good of all. Since the glory is God’s, not ours, and since we all have areas of weakness and we are all saved by God’s mercy and not our own goodness, none of us has a point to prove anyway, so this should be no big deal.
Jesus and the Law
Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. However, his instructions in Matthew 5:21-48 and elsewhere (e.g. his teaching on divorce in Matthew 19:1-12) went beyond the written law in several respects. He required more of his disciples than the law of Moses asked; he called them to a level of purity of heart which could not be reduced to a list of commandments, but which would produce right behaviour. Yet at the same time he made their lives simpler in that his teaching and example clearly abolished some parts of the ceremonial law. Jesus kept the law for the most part but at times he clearly acted and spoke as one who stood above the law. He not only abolished the Pharisees’ interpretations of the Law; at certain points he sovereignly overturned the stipulations of the actual written Law of Moses.
Jesus violated the Pharisees’ interpretation of the Sabbath commandment in order to heal someone on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17). He and his disciples also ate grain from a field on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8) which according to the Pharisees was a violation of the law forbidding work on the Sabbath. Although this act was really only a violation of the Pharisees’ tradition, not the law of Moses, what is significant is the way Jesus defended himself. He used the example of David who had clearly violated the law and yet Jesus declared that David was innocent, and then declared himself to be Lord of the sabbath. This can only mean that Jesus was dictating the terms of what was acceptable on the Sabbath and what was not. In saying this he was stating that he was above the Law of Moses. Jesus also violated the actual written law of Moses when he touched lepers, even though he was not a member of the Levitical priesthood who were the only ones authorized to declare lepers clean under the Law ( Matthew 8:1-3; see Leviticus 13:3 on leprosy as a form of uncleanness, and Leviticus 5:2-6 on the consequences of touching that which was unclean). In addition, Jesus clearly taught (Mark 7:14-23) that the dietary restrictions of the law were no longer in force.
In all these cases, Jesus’ words and actions make it clear that He was introducing a new order. When He died the veil of the temple was torn in two, indicating that the way to the Holy Place was now open, and the Book of Hebrews makes it clear that for believers in Jesus, the Old Covenant is no longer in force. So when Jesus said he was not abolishing the law but fulfilling it, I take this to mean that he was “fulfilling” it in the sense of completing it, or giving the law its actual, intended, true meaning. He did also say that not one jot or tittle of the law would pass away until all was accomplished, but I understand this to mean that the whole law remains in effect for those who choose to live under it, as Paul also said. If anyone is inclined to live under the law, they must keep the whole law (Galatians 3:10-14). But if we recognize that our salvation is in Christ then we are no longer under the law of Moses, we are living in a new order of grace in which purity of heart comes by his mercy and leads to right behaviour.
When Jesus spoke of these commandments in Matthew 5:19-20, I believe he was speaking of the commandments he was about to give in the subsequent verses, which take obedience to a whole new level – introducing requirements that clearly are impossible for man but possible only with God. This was the disciples’ response when he spoke of divorce (Matthew 19:10-11) – they recognized that this requirement was more than they could handle, and Jesus’ response was that the ability to keep this commandment was a gift of grace.
Jesus’ teaching and example takes us beyond the realm of keeping works of the law by our own effort, into a realm of depending totally on God’s grace to purify and transform our hearts, so that we produce good fruit which we would be incapable of producing by ourselves. This is the law of the Spirit of life which Paul spoke of, it is the law of liberty which James spoke of, and I believe this is also what Jesus meant when he said he had come not to abolish the law but to fulfil it, and then followed it up with teachings that in fact go well beyond the law of Moses. I believe he was saying that he had come to fulfil the law by taking it beyond itself. As Paul said in Romans 10:4, Christ is the end of the law – the word end (Greek telos) meaning both goal and termination.
There is certainly effort involved in walking in this new way, but there is also rest. The effort we are to expend is not the effort to keep a list of laws, but rather the daily choice to keep on entering his rest, keep on surrendering our will, keep on choosing the path of faith and love, keep on crucifying the flesh (the old nature), keep on following the leading of the Spirit. If we do this, the righteous requirements of the law are fully met, as Paul said (Romans 8:1-4).